Don’t step on my door matObjective: Analyze the events and response to the Cuba missiles CrisisStd 11.9.3e

Bay of PigsObjective: Analyze the events and response to the events in Cuba during the Cold War

• Cuba was ruled by various presidents and dictators during the first half of the 20th century

• Lots of corruption and incompetence in the government and military. The people were very poor.

• Economy was dominated by foreign interests

• In 1953, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and 80 other Cuban exiles left Mexico for Cuba to start a revolution

• They were immediately attacked by government forces. Only 12 of the original 80 survived.

• Castro and his followers built up their strength over the next 6 years

Fidel Castro and Che Guevara

VS.President Castro

• Castro complained about being under the thumb of the U.S.

• Did not like the U.S. military base at Guantanamo

• Nationalized land previously owned by international corporations

• Redistributed land to peasants (that formerly belonged to corporations)

• U.S. began an economic and credit embargo (No trade or loans)

• Cuba began looking towards the Soviet Union for help

President Eisenhower

The Plan to get rid of Castro

• Under Eisenhower, a plan was developed to get rid of Castro. President Kennedy inherited the plan.

• Cuban exiles were trained in Guatemala. Many of these exiles were from the former regime.

• The hope was that the exiles would inspire other Cubans to take arms against Castro’s Cuba

The Bay Of Pigs Disaster• The invasion was immediately

discovered

• 1,189 invaders were taken prisoner, over 100 killed. 4 CIA pilots were killed.

• The U.S. paid Cuba 53 million dollars to release most of the prisoners

• President Kennedy fired long-time CIA Director Allen W. Dulles, Deputy Director Charles P. Cabell, and Deputy Director Richard Bissell.

Missile CrisisObjective: Analyze the events and response to the events in Cuba during the Cold War

Aftermath: The Bay of Pigs

• Fidel Castro did not want a repeat of the Bay of Pigs

• Cuba and our arch enemy, the Soviet Union, grew closer

• Castro wanted protection from the U.S. The Soviet Union wanted bases where they could attack the U.S. quicker.

• President Khrushchev proposed that Castro allow the Soviet Union to place Nuclear missiles in Cuba

• How did U.S. leadership feel about this?

Soviet President Khrushchev

The Cuban Missile Crisis

Cuban Missile Crisis

Weapons EverywhereSoviet Missiles were taken to Cuba

Attack from Cuba would cause attack on Soviets

Sent US ships to the Atlantic

Held Soviet ship away from Cuba

100,000 men readied for invasion of Cuba

EventSoviet ships stopped to avoid conflict

Eyeball to eyeball and they blinked

Khrushchev removed all missiles from Cuba

US removed missiles from Turkey

ComplaintsKennedy did not follow flexible response

Should have invaded to get rid of Castro

Castro closed Cuba

Man I hate CubaObjective: Analyze the events and response to the events in Cuba during the Cold War

Examples of U.S. contempt of Cuba

• The C.I.A. tried to poison Castro’s cigars and food

• Tried to poison Castro with chemicals that would make his hair and beard fall out, thus causing him humiliation

• The C.I.A. hired the Mafia to have him assassinated

• Tried to figure out a way to give him L.S.D. before one of his speeches. The drug was supposed to make him become disorientated and make a fool out of himself

• The C.I.A. station in Miami employed a couple of hundred people, and worked in cooperation with hundreds of anti-Castro Cubans.

Examples of U.S. contempt of Cuba

• Destroyed or damaged bridges, warehouses, sugarcane fields, oil refineries.

• Sabotaged equipment that Cuba had purchased from other countries. Chemicals were added to machines that would make them break down faster. Parts were made slightly wrong so that the machines would break quicker. The C.I.A. paid companies extra to produce these defective products.

Examples of U.S. contempt of Cuba

• In 1976, Orlando Bosch and associates planted a bomb on a Cuban airliner. The C.I.A. knew, but did nothing to alert Cuba or to prevent Bosch from carrying out the act.

• 73 died, including the entire Cuban Olympic Fencing Team

• He was tried for that crime in Venezuela, but the U.S. intervened

• While on trial, the Miami City Commission declared a “Dr. Orlando Bosch Day”

Dr. Orlando Bosch

Examples of U.S. contempt of Cuba

Dr. Orlando Bosch

• The U.S. has refused to release Bosch to the Cuban authorities

• President Bush (Sr.) pardoned Bosch in 1989

• From 1960-Present, Cuba and the Soviets have been attacked by the C.I.A. and anti-Castro groups hundreds of times

• Repeated bombings of the Soviet Embassy in New York, Soviet ships, attacks on Cuban diplomats, including one murder, a bombing at the Lincoln Center after the Cuban ballet had performed, a bazooka attack by Bosch on a Polish ship that had come from Cuba…

10 presidents and almost 50 years later, Cuba and the U.S. are still at odds. The U.S. still has an economic embargo on Cuba, and it is still illegal to travel to Cuba.

Cuba embargo

Still today, the USA has an economic embargo on communist Cuba.

Their only cars are from before the embargo!